An analysis of generalization in a parent training program from a laboratory to home setting

A mother was trained in a structured laboratory setting, through written and verbal instructions and daily verbal feedback, to modify specific components of her attention to her 4-yr-old daughter’s behavior during an instruct ion-following task. Examinations were made of the effectiveness of parent training in changing the mother’s behavior in the structured laboratory setting, as well as the extent of generalized change in mother’s responses in three other settings in which no training was conducted: 1) a similar structured period in the home, 2) a dissimilar unstructured period in the laboratory, and 3) a-dissimlar unstructured period in the home. The parent-training package, introduced sequentially across components of the mother’s attention in a multiple baseline design, led to desired changes in the mother’s behavior in the structured laboratory setting, and to generalized changes in these same parent behaviors in the structured home setting; however, little generalization occurred to either of the dissimilar unstructured settings. Examination of the child’s behavior showed a progressive decrease in the rate of inappropriate behavior in both structured settings correlated with successive changes in the mother’s behavior